Friday, June 22, 2007

Eighth Blunder

Just when I thought that Pierre had turned his season around... after all, on Wednesday, I noted that he'd batted .361 in his previous 10 games... but since then, 1-for-9, including a truly Pierrish performance in the eighth inning yesterday.

It's hard to get too upset about an inning in which the Dodgers score six times to take an 8-3 lead (they'd eventually win 8-4), but c'mon. Pierre hits a comebacker; Nomar singles; Kent doubles; Gonzalez is intentionally walked; Martin doubles; Saenz singles; Kemp doubles; Abreu singles; Furcal singles. Good stuff so far, right? Then -- in an inning that has been so improbable, the entirely predictable happened. Pierre lines out to third. (Nomar finishes things up by lining to short.) JimBilly4 wonders: hmm, if he'd hit into a double play, he'd have been responsible for all three outs in the inning. Then he wondered: occasionally a team will have one of those mammoth innings in which they bat around twice, scoring 13 runs or more... in any of those incidences, has any one player been up three times in an inning and made out all three times? That's gotta be embarrassing. Pierre's performance in the eighth: only slightly less embarrassing.

So the question is: in a season full of Pierrish performances, was yesterday's eighth inning Pierre at his Pierrest? I don't know. The busted sqeeze play has got to be up there. And the five flyouts day was infuriating. But two outs in an inning in which every other Dodger is taking batting practice? Mirror, mirror on the wall, perhaps this is Pierrest of them all.

At the very least, it looks like the Pierre we ruefully accept as our every day center fielder is back.

1 comment:

I could not find a record for number of outs in an inning. I am going to guess 2 is the record (tied once again by Pierre last night), as it would just be too rare to combine a 13+ run inning with no one else getting out but one guy.

That is, unless we get to count double plays. Then we only need a 5 run inning. Those are very common, so I bet it has happened that some poor bastard was responsible for every out in an inning and every other starter got on.

FYI - The most runs scored in an inning: 18 by Chicago vs. Detroit in 1883.

Most since 1900: 17 by Boston vs. Detroit in 1953.

Most runs in an inning by an individual: 3This had been accomplished 3 times, twice in that 1883 Chicago game (Tommy Burns and Ned Williamson) and once in that 1953 Boston game (Sammy White).